REACTION TURBINE

Prof. Mohamed Moawed

10/31/2012

Dr M-Moawed

REACTION TURBINE
Reaction turbines are those kind of
turbines which the degree of reaction
does not equal zero, and the major of
pressure drop takes place in the rotating
wheel (in impulse turbine, the pressure
drop takes place in the nozzle).
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The radial flow or Francis turbine is a reaction

machine.
In a reaction turbine, the runner is enclosed in a
casing and therefore, the water is always at a
pressure other than atmosphere
As the water flows over the curved blades, the
pressure head is transformed into velocity head.
Thus, water leaving the blade has a large relative
velocity but small absolute velocity. Therefore, most
of the initial energy of water is given to the runner.
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In reaction turbines, water leaves the runner

at atmospheric pressure.
The pressure difference between entrance
and exit points of the runner is known as
reaction pressure.
In the reaction rotor, the water, under a high
station head, has its pressure energy converted
into kinetic energy in a nozzle.
Therefore, part of the work done by the fluid
on the rotor is due to reaction from the pressure
drop, and part is due to a change in kinetic
energy
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In reaction turbine, water from the reservoir enters the turbine

casing through penstocks ( The reaction turbines divided into
Francis turbine and Kaplan turbine)
Fig. 1 shows a cross-section through a Francis turbine and Fig.2
shows an energy distribution through a hydraulic reaction turbine.

Figure 1 Outlines of a Francis turbine.

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Francis turbine
It is named after James B. Francis (1815 1892) an English
born inventor who developed the turbine in the year 1849.
It is used when the head is between 80 to 500 metres. i.e. it is a
medium head turbine.
It is a mixed flow reaction turbine.

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Francis turbine
A Francis turbine rotates in a
closed casing.
Its wheel has many curved blades
called runner vanes as many as 24.
Its shaft is vertical. The wheel of a
Francis turbine operates under
water.
The guide vanes and stay vanes
control the amount of water
flowing into the runner vanes.
The runner is rotated mainly due to
the weight or pressure of the
flowing water.
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Dr M-Moawed

Figure 2 Reaction
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turbine installation.

The inlet and outlet velocity triangles for the

Francis turbine :

(a) Francis turbine

runner
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Reaction turbine runners

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Francis turbine types

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Power, Efficiency and Coefficients:

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Runner dimensions
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Velocity triangles (inward turbine)

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Head Delivered by Turbine and Draft Tube:

To enable the turbine to be set above the water
level, as shown from the following figure, a kind
of diffuser is provided and connected between
the water exit and the tail race level. This is
called a draft tube.
A partial vacuum is produced at the upper end of
the draft tube, which compensates for the height
at which the turbine runner is set within certain
limits. The turbine rotor could be set at different
elevations without altering the available head.
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Another function to draft tube is to reduce the exit

velocity from the turbine in such a way that the
kinetic energy rejected in tail race could be
reduced.

Schematic diagram of reaction

turbine installation
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Applying energy equation (Bernoulli's) between points 1 and 2

(the turbine exit and the draft tube exit);

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Draft tube function

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Types of Draft Tube:

Many different designs of the draft tube have been developed.
Naturally, the most efficient type will be I and III in the following
figure. Both are straight which reduce losses. Type II has a
bell-mouthed outlet and an internal conical core. In some
cases, the control cone is extended up to meet the runner so
as to form a solid core.

Draft tube types

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Net Head:
By definition the net head is the difference in
elevation between headwater and tail
water levels minus the pipe friction losses
and the velocity head in the tail race at the
point of discharge from the draft tube (the
rejected kinetic energy).

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Cavitation in Turbines:
The cavitation phenomenon occurs when, at
any point, the water pressure drops below
its corresponding vapour pressure. This will
create bubbles and the fluid will rush into
the cavities left by the bubbles causing a
species of water hammer.
The resulting cavitation that occurs in the
turbine not only impairs the turbine
performance but it may also damage the
machine itself.
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The signs of cavitation are:

i. Milky appearance of the water at the exit
of draft tube.
ii. Vibrations and noise.
It is convenient to define a dimensionless
pressure coefficient that denotes the
cavitation tendency of the flow. This
expression could be written as the
following form;
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where P and V are the pressure and velocity

of flow at any point. The velocity and
pressure of the flow are not easily
measured and cannot be computed.
Another parameter could be easily used
which is K , similar to , and is defined as;

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This coefficient is applied on the turbine exit on

the top of the draft tube or preferably to the
highest point in the runner where cavitation
might occur and where H is the net head on
the turbine as defined before.
The above expression is also not practical
because of difficulties of measuring the
pressure and velocity at the top of the draft
tube.
Applying energy equation between the section
(2) and the tail race,
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hL is the head losses between section (2) and the

water tail race level.
These losses include the kinetic energy rejected
to the water and the hydraulic losses.
However, the draft tube is considered an integral
part of the turbine, hence the term head loss is
omitted and the resulting parameter then covers
the combination of runner and its draft tube.
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This parameter is known by Thoma

cavitation factor;

The value of at which cavitation occurred is called

the critical value of Thoma cavitation factor c . This
value could be determined by experiments. This can
be done by varying Z2 and noting the value of at
which the power and efficiency are started to
change,
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Critical cavitation factor

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The previous expression is usually used to

determine the maximum elevation above the tail
water surface at which a turbine can be set
without resultant cavitation as following;

A given turbine running at given Ns is to work

under increased head, the turbine must be
lowered, i.e. the greater the total head the less
the suction head must be.
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Some limiting safe values of c are given by

Moody for rated specific speeds;

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The critical cavitation number depends upon the

type of turbine and is a function of the specific
speed. For Francis turbine, it is given by:

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Francis Turbine Performance:

Turbine classification according to specific

speed and head
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Performance at constant speed and variable gate

opening
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Performance of Francis turbine running at 1 m head

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Turbines: Characterising turbines: Specific

speed: Dimensional specific speed
Type

Typical
head

Rad

Rev

Metric

British

>300

<0.2

<0.03

<30

<10

Francis

500-30

0.25-1.3

0.04-0.2

50-250

10-60

Kaplan

50-4

2-6

0.3-1

3601200

100-300

Pelton

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Turbines: Cavitation effects on blades

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Difference between Impulse and Reaction hydraulic

turbines:
Sl.No.

Impulse turbine

Reaction turbine

e.g. Pelton turbine

e.g. Kaplan & Francis turbines

In an impulse turbine all the available

energy of water is converted into
kinetic energy as it passes through a
nozzle.

In a reaction turbine, at the entrance to

the runner, only a part of the available
energy of water is converted into
kinetic energy and a greater part
remains in the form of pressure energy.

The water flowing through the nozzle

impinges on the buckets which are
fixed on the outer periphery of the
wheel.

The water is guided by the guide

blades to flow over the runner vanes.

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Difference between Kaplan turbine and Francis turbine:

Sl.No.

Kaplan turbine

Water enters the runner vanes axially Water enters the runner vanes radially
and leaves axially, hence it is called and leaves axially, hence it is called a
axial flow turbine.
mixed flow turbine.

The number of blades in the runner The number of blades in the runner is
is generally between 3 and 8.
generally between 16 and 24.

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Francis turbine

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Example 1
In a vertical shaft inward flow reaction turbine, the sum of the
pressure and kinetic heads at entrance to the spiral casing
is 120 m and the vertical distance between this section and
the tail race level is 3 m. The peripheral velocity of the
runner at entry is 30 m/s, the radial velocity of the water is
constant at 9 m/s and the discharge from the runner is
without whirl. The estimated hydraulic losses are:
(1) between turbine entrance and exit from the guide
vanes 4.8 m.
(2) in the runner 8.8 m.
(3) in the draft tube 790 mm.
(4) kinetic head rejected to the tail race 460 mm.
Calculate the guide vane angle, the runner blade angle at inlet
and the pressure head at entry to the runner.
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Solution
Given:

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Velocity triangles (inward turbine)

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Applying Bernoullis equation between points 1 and 3:

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*****************************
Thank You
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